Breakfast at Abby's; plane, boat and a dilapidated truck to sleep in; the fish and I hung out for over a decade and now its gone

I know - given the medical and other debt burdens we face, I should stay home for breakfast and eat Cheerios or oatmeal. But, once again, I find myself waking up in a house empty of all but me, two cats, and a few fish - one less than a couple of days ago. I know that, basically, I will be alone in the house at my computer without any human contact throughout the day, which is okay, because I am a very good loner and when I get down to doing my work, I pretty much must be alone.

Still, I have a bit of a desire for some human contact, I don't want to cook or pour Cheerios out of a box and so, this morning, about 9:00 AM, I headed to Abby's for breakfast.

Along the way, I saw this girl waiting for the school bus.

When I stepped into Abby's, I found Trinity, Abby's granddaughter, about to go out the door in the arms of her mother, Emily.

I had ham and eggs over easy, Abby's fresh-shredded hash browns - which, in all honesty, are simply the best hash browns I have ever had in any restaurant, anywhere, two sourdough pancakes (Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!) and two-and-a-half cups of coffee.

All in all - a damn good breakfast.

Tomorrow I will discipline myself and will pour some Cheerios from the box into the bowl.

I will cut up a banana into it.

Right now, at this very moment, I am slow-cooking caribou from Roy David and Edna Ahmaogak in a crock pot. That's what I will eat tonight.

Oddly enough, now that Caleb has a girlfriend, most evenings I actually see him - and her - so they will be welcome to have some caribou, too.

I have a bunch more - both from Roy/Edna and Jason/Lolo/Maak that I am keeping frozen until the whole family can come out and then we will have a big caribou feast and I will do my best to cook it North Slope Iñupiaq style.

Afterward, I went for a walk. This airplane flew over. I wondered why it was up there and I was down here. It has been so long since I have gripped the stick.

Will I ever do it again? Given all I have been through, if I find the way, will I even pass the medical?

I must find the way. I must pass the medical.

God did not put me on this earth to just walk and drive. 

God put me on this earth to fly.

God forgot to give me wings.

So I need another airplane.

Shortly after the plane flew past, I came upon the wild child, sitting outside the Van Weld metal shop. My understanding is they built this boat themselves.

Say... I wonder if I offered to give them 32 hard copies of this photograph would they maybe make me a boat like this?

If they did, I would go catch a halibut and 32 salmon, out in the sea.

A bit further, I came upon this vehicle that I don't think is abandoned, although it looks like it is. I think it belongs to the people who live in the house on the other side of those trees it but it has been sitting here for a long time. Nobody bothered it for quite awhile, which was kind of amazing for Wasilla, but still, this is Wasilla and no vehicle is safe sitting on the edge of the road indefinitely, even if it is also sitting on the edge of its owner's property.

I peeked in and a thought hit me. What if I were to lie down on this seat and just go to sleep and stay asleep? Maybe no one would look in. Soon, the truck should be buried in snow. Maybe I could sleep until spring and nobody would find me.

I don't think I will try it, though.

It could get pretty cold in here between now and spring.

This is the one less fish - a freshwater bala shark, which is not a shark at all, but it sure was pretty. I hated to lose it. I believe it was Christmas of 2000 when my family gave me a 39 gallon aquarium and this critter was in the first batch of three fish I put in it.

The shark outgrew that tank and so I bought a 55 gallon tank for it and a couple of other fish that got big and then when they kept growing and more fish came I bought a used 90 gallon tank. One of the close-to-original-fish lives with a plecostamus in the 90 gallon tank and there are two fire mouths and a plecostamas left in the 55 gallon. There some little tetras in the 39 gallon.

I think I will move all of the fish from the 55 into the 90, sell the 55 and keep the 39 as place where I might one day start out another baby bala shark and grow it there until it is big enough to go into the 90 with the big fish.

Maybe I should just quit keeping fish. I like them, but I am gone so much and I always worry that an earthquake might shatter the tanks and dump water all over my hard drives and negatives, too.

Still, Bala Shark and I spent over a decade together. I am sorry to see Bala Shark go.

Comments

[twain12]

sorry about the Fish, we get attaches. I'm attached to my cocky firemouth cichlid too.

[Mrs Gunka]

Years ago our oldest boy had a fish tank. It sat precariously close to the pool table down in the family room. One night a bunch of his friends were playing some pool. Boys have a tendency to get a little rowdy....pool ball jumped the table and ended up in the fish tank via the side glass. It's amazing how much water is even in a smaller tank when it exits the tank in a rather rapid pace. The boys realized it too, as I assigned the clean-up to them! Thus ended our fish tank faze of his life. One never knows when a Thomas the tank might leave the tracks and go flying into the side of a big fish tank. It could be mistaken for an earthquake.

Hope the caribou stew is good. It may be good for breakfast too. Welcome home. Kitty seems glad to have you back.

[Shoshana]

Beautiful pictures, Bill. They had a lot of charachter. Sorry about your shark fish.